International Conference   BUILDING INSIGHTS OF MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS AND ACCOUNTING TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT Ukrainian National Forestry University, Lviv, Ukraine May 17 � 19, 2007   IUFRO Unit 4.05.00 - Managerial Economics and Accounting IUFRO Unit 4.05.01 - Managerial, social and environmental accounting IUFRO Unit 4.05.02 - Managerial economics

Global Forest Comparisons: the Pilot Yale Forest Index

Lloyd C. Irland, Tiffany Potter

and

Daniel C. Esty. Yale University, USA

Email: lloyd.irland@yale.edu 

Monitoring progress toward SFM at a national level is an emerging level of international concern.  The release of the FAO's 2005 Global Forest Resources Assessment provided an updated dataset for analyzing the world's forest estate.  Several groups of analysts have employed this dataset to understand various aspects of forest change.  The Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy is one of them.  In past years, the Center has developed a Yale Environmental Policy Index, collaboratively with Columbia University and others.  In 2007, the Center is releasing its Pilot Yale Forest Index, which will integrate data-based comparisons of forest conditions into its next revision of the Environmental Policy index.  This Index is one of many efforts to supply numerical indexes to enable cross-country comparisons of many kinds of variables.  They are used, for example, in assessing progress toward the millennium Development Goals, and can be applied for other purposes as well.  This paper summarizes the process employed, and lessons learned about cross-national comparisons using this kind of data, and highlights major conclusions.

Keywords: Yale environmental policy index; country comparisons; sustainability; global assessment.

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